Prayer of Mothers
by Shimi Cohen
For two decades, violence in the Arab sector has been a real problem that requires treatment and solution. In the last year, the situation has reached an unprecedented low.
Attempts to understand the crisis of violence in the sector sometimes seem like a mud battle in which the parties place the responsibility on each other. These argue that the accused depends on the institutional attitude towards Arab society and its long-standing neglect, and these argue that the infrastructure for this lies in the violent culture of the Arab sector and social norms that are difficult to suppress.
Our understanding of the violence in this society should be seen as based on both internal-cultural factors and external-institutional factors.
Internal factors include rooted social norms, a traditional social structure and a culture passed down from generation to generation, while external factors include the attitude of the Israeli government towards Arab society.
In order to deal with the internal-cultural factors, it seems that Arab society is the one that needs to take internal responsibility for itself.
One of the most powerful tools for eradicating violence is social pressure. Social illegitimacy for acts of violence and condemnation of criminals are not norms that change in the blink of an eye, and these are processes that Arab society must go through and promote. Possession of weapons should become unacceptable, and its use, even in happy circumstances such as weddings, should be banned by community leaders. The Arab leadership must work for the establishment of new social norms and impose severe sanctions on those who do not adhere to them. The same is true of cases of domestic violence and murder of women that local authorities have in the past turned a blind eye to.
This is a slow and painful process that Arab society must go through with itself.
As much as a social process concerning the change of traditional social norms ultimately also this process can and should take place from the bottom up in the way in which society itself seeks to change its way of life.
Such a step, although seemingly simple and understandable, can take several years and the ability to influence it from the outside is quite limited.
For years there has not been a sharp and clear voice of protest against the widespread use of weapons in the Arab sector, against domestic violence and the ease with which a minor conflict turns into a bloody quarrel. In recent months, when the wave of violence seemed to be rising again, citizens themselves have begun to get involved and demand the protection of their security.
Last Friday, immediately after the end of the prayer, thousands blocked Road 65.
This is what was seen through my lens.
March 2021, Umm al-Fahm
